Legal & General Group Plc Takes Position in WaFd, Inc. $WAFD

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of WaFd, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 171,005 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $6,561,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in WaFd in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,055,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of WaFd in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $413,410,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of WaFd by 28.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 905,863 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,444,000 after purchasing an additional 198,728 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new stake in shares of WaFd in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,317,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG bought a new stake in shares of WaFd in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,015,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on WAFD shares. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of WaFd from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Zacks Research cut WaFd from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of WaFd in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, WaFd currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.00.

WaFd Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of WAFD opened at $35.94 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $37.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.34 and a beta of 0.83. WaFd, Inc. has a 1-year low of $26.31 and a 1-year high of $39.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 17th. The bank reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.82 by ($0.01). WaFd had a return on equity of 8.98% and a net margin of 18.47%.The firm had revenue of $205.52 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $199.56 million. Analysts expect that WaFd, Inc. will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

WaFd Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 21st. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.07%.

WaFd Profile

Washington Federal, Inc, doing business as WaFd Bank, is a publicly traded bank holding company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Through its subsidiary, WaFd Bank, the company provides a range of banking and financial services to individuals, small-to-medium enterprises, and commercial clients. Established in 1917 as Ballard Savings & Loan in Seattle, the institution expanded over decades to serve customers across the Western United States under the Washington Federal name and has operated as a public company since the early 1980s.

WaFd Bank’s core offerings encompass deposit accounts such as checking, savings, money market, and certificates of deposit, alongside consumer and commercial lending products.